Dakota Networks Capital Improvement Project

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For the past 10 years, Dakota County has successfully connected public entities within Dakota County with fiber optic cable through collaborative efforts between the state, cities, schools, and other public entities within our county (the I-Net).

More than 240 nodes were connected for less than $1,000,000 of county funds, in stark contrast to other counties, who have spent 10’s of millions of dollars to install similar networks. Dakota County achieved these savings, in large part, by leveraging cable franchise agreements and intensive collaborative efforts.

In addition, collaboration partners are forming a working committee under the auspices of a Joint Powers Agreement to develop a Commercial Network (C-Net) to better promote economic development. The C-Net collaborative will also promote the expansion of Wi-Max wireless technology, as a successful Wi-Max requires a robust fiber infrastructure.